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“House  of  Refuse 


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SUPPLEMENT  TO  THE 


ANNALS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ACADEMY 

OF 

POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  SCIENCE. 


JUL  Y,  1890. 


A 

CHAPTER  IN  THE  HISTORY 

OF  THE 

PHILADELPHIA  HOUSE  OF -REFUGE 

-•  t». 

BY 

JOS!  G.  ROSENGARTEN,  ESQ., 

OF  THE  PHILADELPHIA  BAR. 

PRICE. , - - - 25  CENTS 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OK  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  SCIENCE, 
PHILADELPHIA. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/chapterinhistoryOOrose 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


A recent  investigation  by  a legislative  commission  has 
attracted  public  attention  to  the  House  of  Refuge.  This 
reformatory  was  established  here  over  sixty  years  ago  by  a 
few  leading  public-spirited  citizens,  among  them  Bishop 
White,  Chief  Justice  Tilghman,  the  Hon.  John  Sergeant, 
and  other  representative  men  of  every  pursuit,  profession 
and  creed.  From  that  day  to  this  it  has  been  controlled 
by  the  contributors  through  a Board  of  Managers,  in  which 
the  State  is  represented  by  three  members,  appointed  by 
the  Board  of  Judges,  and  the  city  by  two  members,  ap- 
pointed by  the  mayor.  Towards  the  buildings  private 
contributions,  gifts  and  legacies  have  given  over  $350,000, 
the  State  has  given  over  $100,000  and  the  city  $10,000. 
The  annual  expense  of  maintenance  has  been  provided  by 
the  State  and  the  city,  for.  at  the  outset  children  were  sent 
fronrall  the  counties  of  the  State,  while  since  the  estab- 
lishment of  a similar  reformatory  near  Pittsburg  the  State 
has  been  divided  into  two  districts — the  Eastern,  including 
about  two-thirds  the  population  of  the  State,  still  sending 
children  to  Philadelphia,  the  rest  of  the  State  sending 
them  to  the  Pittsburg  house. 

The  city  sends  a large  number  of  children,  and  finds 
abundant  compensation  for  its  appropriation  in  the  good 
results  of  the  work  done  by  this  reformatory.  For  many 
years  the  managers  have  anxiously  sought  for  the  means  of  re- 
moving their  institution,  with  its  800  inmates,  to  the  country, 
establishing  them  in  cottage  homes,  and  using  the  congre- 
gate system  only  for  the  new  comers  until  their  special 
fitness  is  ascertained,  for  the  incorrigibles,  and  especially 
for  those  returned  to  the  institution.  Succeeding  applica- 
tions to  the  State  for  a small  share  of  its  large  surplus 


4 


The  House  of  Refuge. 


income  had  all  measures  of  legislative  luck,  mostly  bad, 
and  when  finally  a bill  passed  both  Houses  providing  for 
the  purchase  by  the  State  of  the  larger  part  of  the  house, 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  there  an  intermediate  re- 
formatory for  boys  between  16  and  21,  a class  largely  filling 
our  prisons  and  jails,  and  quite  out  of  place  there,  it  was 
vetoed  by  the  Governor. 

Disheartened,  but  not  dismayed,  the  managers  again 
appealed  to  private  generosity,  and  in  response  came  the 
munificent  gift  of  $100,000  from  William  Massey,  followed 
by  $105,000  from  the  late  I.  V.  Williamson,  $35,000  from 
the  late  John  Smith,  and  other  gifts  of  families  and  indi- 
viduals from  $5000  down,  aggregating  nearly  $350,000, 
with  which  a large  tract  of  land  in  Delaware  County  was 
purchased,  and  where  four  buildings  suited  for  the  im- 
proved methods  of  reformatory  work  are  being  rapidly 
completed.  It  is  proposed  to  house  the  boys  in  cottages 
holding  each  fifty  inmates,  with  a house  father  and  mother, 
and  to  have  suitable  administration  buildings,  work  shops, 
schools,  chapel  and  all  the  other  necessary  adjuncts  on  a 
scale  sufficient  to  house  1000  inmates  and  the  necessary 
staff  of  officers.  The  farm  will  supply  capital  training  for 
a large  number  of  boys,  who  will  thus  be  fitted  for  life  in 
the  country,  free  from  the  temptations  of  city  life.  Useful 
trades  can  be  thoroughly  taught,  so  that  every  boy,  besides 
the  good  elementary  education  that  he  now  receives,  will 
have  a technical  training  that  will  help  him  on  in  life. 

Towards  this  great  establishment  the  State  has  con- 
tributed $35,000,  subject  to  a proviso  that  it  shall  have  an 
option  to  buy  the  city  property,  and  to  credit  that  amount 
on  the  purchase  price,  which  has  been  fixed  at  $400,000 — 
little  more  than  the  ground  is  worth. 

A legislative  commission  was  created  at  the  last 
session,  with  large  powers  to  examine  the  methods  in  force 
in  penal,  reformatory  and  charitable  institutions  receiving 
aid  from  the  State,  with  a view  to  the  establishment  of  a 
good  system  of  supervising  the  application  of  State  money, 


The  House  of  Refuge. 


5 


of  preventing  the  duplication  and  misuse  of  its  appropria- 
tions, and  of  devising  methods  of  account  that  should  show 
the  per  capita  cost  of  the  inmates,  and  other  financial  points 
of  interest.  That  commission  spent  many  weeks  in  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  House  of  Refuge.  Its  methods  have 
been  laid  before  the  public  in  daily  newspaper  reports,  and 
the  results  have  not  been  such  as  to  increase  the  number 
of  those  who  are  likely  to  give  time  and  labor  to  the  care 
of  these  and  kindred  institutions.  Managers  who  have 
given  years  of  labor  to  the  work,  succeeding  in  many  cases 
to  the  fathers  and  grandfathers  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
founding  and  building  of  these  institutions,  were  subject 
to  the  investigation  of  men  and  women  who  for  the  first 
time  in  their  lives  visited  such  establishments,  and  thus, 
totally  without  preparation,  found  fault  with  existing 
methods,  and  proposed  changes  that  were  impracticable 
and  puerile.  Instead  of  the  broad  system  of  intelligent 
inquiry  from  those  best  able  to  give  information,  the 
opportunity  was  used  to  fill  the  public,  through  some  of  the 
newspapers,  with  sensational  charges  of  the  most  out- 
rageous kind.  Challenged  to  prove  them,  days  and  nights 
were  spent  in  examination  of  witnesses  without  establish- 
ing a single  one  of  these  grave  offences,  and  even  at  the 
last,  in  an  executive  session,  the  chairman,  who  was  both 
prosecutor  and  judge  and  jury,  repeated  the  statement 
that  he  had  evidence  in  his  possession,  but  out  of  considera- 
tion for  the  character  of  the  witnesses  he  would  not  call 
them.  What  sort  of  consideration  he  thought  due  to  those 
who  had  been  examined,  to  the  managers  and  officers,  and 
the  ex-inmates  and  the  inmates,  he  did  not  explain.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  no  report  made  to  the  Legislature  can  carry 
with  it  the  weight  due  to  a fair  and  judicial  investigation, 
and  its  conclusions  and  recommendations  must  lose  all 
value  from  the  methods  adopted  in  pursuing  the  inquiry. 

Beginning  as  a private  effort  to  reform  a class  before  neg- 
lected, the  Philadelphia  House  of  Refuge  was  the  second  in- 
stitution of  the  kind  in  this  country,  New  York  preceding  it 


6 


The  House  of  Refuge. 


only  a short  time.  For  over  sixty  years  it  has  steadily  worked 
on,  improving  its  methods  and  its  discipline  and  its  education 
just  as  fast  and  as  far  as  could  be  done  under  the  disad- 
vantages incidental  to  a congregate  system  in  a great  city, 
grown  up  to  and  around  and  far  beyond  its  walls.  Now 
that  private  munificence  has  in  a year  or  two  provided  a 
great  sum  of  money,  as  much  as  has  been  given  in  all  the 
earlier  half  century  and  more  of  its  existence,  and  while  it 
is  still  appealing  to  individuals,  to  State  and  city,  for  the 
means  of  completing  its  great  plans,  and  for  carrying  on 
its  work  in  accordance  with  the  methods  in  force  in  the 
best  reformatories  in  this  country  and  abroad,  its  efforts 
are  paralyzed  by  this  sort  of  so-called  legislative  investiga- 
tion, and  the  public  are  kept  for  weeks  waiting  for  the 
proof  of  charges  of  the  gravest  kind,  and  although  not  one 
of  them  was  sustained,  public  confidence  receives  a serious 
shock,  and  the  discipline  of  the  House  of  Refuge  is 
threatened  by  the  imprudent  utterances  of  official  and  non- 
official persons  and  newspapers,  giving  the  inmates  to 
understand  that  no  matter  what  the  faults  that  brought 
them  there,  these  volunteer  sympathizers  were  ready  to 
give  them  a safe  deliverance,  an  easy  life,  and  impunity  for 
any  license  or  violation  of  established  rules  they  might 
choose  to  indulge  in.  Meantime  the  managers  and  officers 
are  left  to  reconcile  themselves  as  best  they  may  to  impu- 
tations on  their  character,  to  charges  of  sins  of  omission 
and  commission,  and  to  this  sort  of  return  from  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  for  years  of  earnest  labor  in  behalf 
of  a class  that  especially  need  a guiding  hand,  a watchful 
eye  and  a careful  discipline. 

The  figures  that  tell  the  extent  of  the  work  of  the  House 
of  Refuge  during  its  long  and  useful  career  show  how 
greatly  it  has  been  needed,  and  the  growth  of  population 
shows  that  it  is  still  a necessary  adjunct  to  our  other  insti- 
tutions. Since  its  opening,  in  1828,  down  to  the  close  of 
1889,  the  House  of  Refuge  has  received  18,384  children — 
13,729  boys  and  4655  girls — and  of  these  it  is  believed  that 


The  House  of  Refuge. 


7 


nearly  80  per  cent,  have  been  rescued  from  lives  of  crime 
and  shame,  and  restored  either  to  their  own  families,  or 
where,  as  was  too  often  the  case,  this  was  not  to  be  desired, 
good  homes  were  found  for  them,  mostly  in  the  country, 
where  they  were  regularly  visited  by  a representative  of 
the  institution,  which  thus  continues  its  kindly  care  of  its 
former  inmates.  Nor  does  it  end  here,  for  only  lately  a 
trade  school  has  been  opened  for  the  benefit  of  boys  who 
have  left  the  house,  so  that  when  out  of  work  they  have 
the  opportunity  of  learning  a trade  that  will  enable  them 
to  find  employment  and  to  be  self-supporting,  industrious 
and  honest,  thus  rescuing  them  from  the  temptation  to  re- 
turn to  their  old  courses  and  to  be  once  more  a charge  on 
the  community.  Charity  of  this  kind  is  indeed  twice 
blessed,  for  it  benefits  not  only  the  immediate  recipients  of 
its  training,  but  it  does  incalculable  good  in  changing 
them  from  being  an  expense  to  the  public  into  wage 
earners. 

Readily  acknowledging  the  objections  to  institutional 
life  for  young  children,  and  the  advantage  of  finding  homes 
for  those  who  by  misfortune  or  something  worse  of  their 
parents  are  in  need  of  care,  the  children  sent  to  the  House 
of  Refuge  are  of  a class  that  could  not  with  advantage  to  them- 
selves or  safety  to  others  be  sent  into  private  families  without 
a period  of  moral  regeneration.  Just  as  hospitals  are  neces- 
sary alike  for  the  care  of  their  inmates  and  the  protection 
of  the  public,  so  the  House  of  Refuge  is  an  asylum  for  the 
reformation  of  children  who  need  its  discipline  and  train- 
ing before  they  can  be  safely  returned  to  their  own  homes 
or  sent  to  others  carefully  selected  for  them.  The  evils 
necessarily  incidental  to  congregate  systems  will  be 
practically  reduced  to  the  minimum  by  the  cottage  homes  at 
Glen  Mills,  while  the  advantage  of  classification  can  be 
there  secured,  and  the  open  air  life,  the  farm  work,  schools 
and  work  shops  will  all  be  just  such  as  to  give  to  the  in- 
mates the  benefit  of  that  amount  of  restraint  necessary  to 
effective  discipline  and  training. 


8 


The  House  of  Refuge. 


After  all,  what  the  House  of  Refuge  wants  is  not  a hostile 
investigation  of  its  past,  for  that  is  soon  to  be  a matter  of 
history,  but  a sympathetic  effort  to  secure  the  best  methods 
that  will  put  it  ahead  of  other  reformatories  in  point  of  re- 
sults, just  as  it  antedates  all  but  one  of  those  that 
are  now  in  successful  operation  in  this  country.  The 
present  system  of  cottage  homes  is  one  of  comparatively 
recent  date.  Introduced  near  Hamburg  by  Father  Wichern 
rather  as  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  home  founded  by 
him  on  an  old  farm,  with  its  scattered  buildings,  it  has 
gradually  been  extended  in  both  old  and  new  reformatories 
until  they  are  to-day  in  general  use.  The  advantage  of  that 
personal  supervision  which  comes  from  the  management  in 
the  hands  of  private  individuals,  over  the  perfunctory  at- 
tendance of  state  officials,  is  heightened  in  the  House  of 
Refuge  by  the  fact  that  in  its  present  Board  there  are  those 
who  represent  the  second  and  third  generation  of  the  men 
who  first  established  the  institution,  and  thus  take  an 
hereditary  interest  in  its  welfare. 

Much  attention  has  of  late  been  given  to  the  question  of 
prison  labor  as  a factor  in  the  problem  of  keeping  up  wages. 
Apart  from  the  very  small  proportion  which  its  products 
bear  to  the  general  result  of  goods  made  for  the  market,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  House  of  Refuge  is  not  a 
prison.  Chief  Justice  Gibson  said,  in  1838,  that  it  was  not 
a prison  but  a school,  and  from  that  day  to  this  the  dis- 
tinction has  been  carefully  kept  in  mind  in  dealing  with 
the  inmates.  If  they  are  to  lead  good  and  honest  lives  and 
to  become  wage  earners  and  producers,  and  not  mere  con- 
sumers and  a charge  on  the  taxpayers,  they  must  be  taught 
trades  which,  on  their  discharge,  will  yield  them  a living, 
and  thus  enable  them  to  resist  temptation.  If  this  is  borne 
in  mind  by  those  who  lead  the  labor  organizations,  their 
members  cannot  fail  to  see  that  the  advantage  to  the  whole 
community  is  much  greater  than  to  the  individual  boy  or 
girl,  while  the  benefit  to  them  is  a relief  to  the  taxpayer 
and  to  the  wage  earner. 


The  House  of  Refuge. 


9 


In  discussing  and  investigating  methods  of  discipline  in 
force  in  the  House  of  Refuge,  the  examiners  should  be  ex- 
perts who  have  lived  and  worked  in  such  institutions,  and 
who  know  something  of  what  is  needed  for  the  training  of 
boys  and  girls.  Even  those  who  live  in  good  homes  can 
rarely  show  a larger  percentage  of  those  of  whom  a good 
account  can  be  given  than  the  number  reclaimed  by  the 
House  of  Refuge.  When  the  home  influences  that  have 
surrounded  them  from  their  earliest  years  are  borne  in 
mind,  it  is  only  surprising  that  the  few  months  spent  in 
the  House  of  Refuge,  an  average  of  twenty-one  months  for 
boys  and  twenty-eight  months  for  girls,  should  effect  such 
good  results.  The  reason  for  it  is  found  in  the  constant 
supervision  exercised  over  them,  the  well-defined  succession 
of  employment  and  relaxation,  the  alternation  of  hours  of 
work  and  play  and  school  and  sleep,  the  uniformly  good 
food,  the  regular  hours,  the  abundant  time  for  sleeping, 
and  incessant  sanitary  inspection.  The  medical  reports 
show  that  the  children  gain  in  health  and  strength  and 
weight ; that  the  percentage  of  disease  is  very  small,  and 
of  mortality  far  below  the  average  out  of  doors,  and  all  this 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  children  sent  to  the  House  of 
Refuge  in  too  many  cases  bear  the  burthen  of  hereditary 
disease  and  suffer  for  the  sins  of  others  rather  than  their 
own.  Yet  with  all  these  difficulties  to  contend  with,  the 
managers  of  the  House  of  Refuge  show  a population  that 
tells  better  than  any  figures  the  advantages  of  a well- 
ordered  life  for  those  who,  perhaps  for  the  first  time,  within 
its  walls  learn  to  know  what  it  is  to  have  enough  food, 
decent  clothing,  abundant  facilities  for  cleanliness,  regular 
hours  and  comfortable  sleeping  and  living  and  dining  and 
working  and  school  and  play  rooms.  As  against  these  sub- 
stantial gains  it  is  hardly  fair  that  the  evidence  of  discharged 
employes,  of  amateur  visitors  and  of  inmates,  should  be 
allowed  to  outweigh  the  testimony  of  those  who  have  given 
their  lives  to  the  work  that  has  for  over  sixty  years  been 
done  in  and  by  the  House  of  Refuge. 


10 


The  House  of  Refuge. 


That  the  State  should  inspect  and  investigate  the  in- 
stitutions toward  which  it  contributes  from  its  treasury  is 
both  right  and  proper,  but  this  should  be  done  by  trained 
inspectors,  permanently  employed,  upon  a sound  system. 
In  this  way  the  Legislature  would  gather  just  such  informa- 
tion as  it  needs  for  its  guidance.  The  State  Board  of 
Charities  is  created  for  this  very  purpose,  and  its  annual 
reports  contain  the  best  summary  of  the  facts  and  statistics, 
the  suggestions  and  recommendations,  that  are  needed  to 
inform  both  the  people  and  their  representatives  of  the  work 
of  the  State,  local  and  other  institutions.  In  harmony 
with  the  method  in  force  since  the  foundation  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, much  of  the  best  work  of  this  kind  is  done  by  private 
corporations,  established  by  charitable  men  and  women, 
and  watched  over  by  those  who  have  given  money  and 
time  and  thought  to  their  maintenance.  The  House  of 
Refuge  is  an  example  of  over  sixty  years  of  just  such 
volunteer  charity,  and  it  has  a record  for  usefulness  and  of 
results  that  entitle  it  to  the  confidence  and  support  alike  of 
the  public  and  of  private  benefactors.  The  continuance  of 
both  is  the  only  reward  that  those  entrusted  with  the 
responsibility  of  its  management  have  ever  asked. 


Photomount 
Pamphlet 
Binder 
Gaylord  Bros. 
Makers 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

PAT.  JAN  21,  1908 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


